Over 2,500 years ago, the philosopher Heraclitus dipped his toes into a river in Greece and instantly understood that change itself is the one unchanging reality. Everything is in flux. Change is the source of life, the one thing you can trust.

Barreling through the night at a hundred miles an hour, lightning flashes in the distance. The train whistle sounds lonesome as we round the bend. When I fell asleep, strapped into an upper bunk, we were in Kansas.

Radio commentator, Paul Harvey, tells about a 3-year-old boy who went to the grocery store with his mother. Before they entered the grocery store she said to him, “Now you’re not going to get any chocolate chip cookies, so don’t even ask.”

A few years ago I was talking with a student about her academic career and new-fashioned optimism. “Your future is full of possibility,” I said admiringly. Without hesitation, she replied, “Yours is too.” She thought nothing of her remark. I thought a lot about it.